James stephens



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES STEPHENS, OE NEW YORK, N. Y.

CURTAIN-FIXTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 15,258, dated July l, 1856.

T 0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JAMES STEPHENS, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Fixture for Vindow-Shades; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being' had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a side view of my improvement. Fig. 2, is a vertical section of ditto, the plane of section being through the center.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

My invention consists in having an arbor to which one end of the shade roller is attached iitted in av swinging pendent which is attached to the window casing, said arbor having a ratchet upon it and also a pinion which gears into a toothed wheel having a coil spring connected to its axis; the toothed wheel and spring being attached to the pendent, and the several parts being so arranged that as the shade is drawn down the spring will be wound up, and retained by a pawl which catches into the ratchet and by releasing the pawl from the ratchet, the coil spring will rotate the shade roller and wind up the shade.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention I will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a pendent the upper' part of which is attached by a screw (a), to the Aside of the window casing A, and B, is an arbor which is titted in said pendent, the outer end of the arbor projecting outward at right angles from the pendent and having a square formed upon it to tit in one end of the shade roller C, so that the roller and arbor will turn together. The opposite end of the roller may be provided with a pivot to iit in a corresponding pendent on the opposite side of the window casing. By having the roller C, fitted to these pendente, the roller is allowed a certain degree of plav, so that it will not interfere with inside shutters, as the roller may be forced back snugly against the sashes.

The arbor B, has a ratchet D, upon it and also av pinion E. The pinion E, gears into a toothed wheel F, the axis (7)), ot' which is fitted in the pendent A, and G, is a coil spring also fitted within the pendent. The inner end of this spring Gr, is attached to the axis (o), of the wheel F, and the outer end otl the spring is attached to the pendent.

H, is a pawl attached to the upper part ot the pendent. The inner end ot this pawl catches into the ratchet D, and the outer end has a cord (c), attached to it.

By the above arrangement of parts when the shade which is attached to the roller C is drawn down by hand, the spring G, will be wound up and retained by the pawl H, which catches into the ratchet D, and when it is desired to raise the shade the inner end of the pawl H, by pulling the cord (c), is raised tree from the ratchet and the spring G, will then rotate the roller C, and wind up the shade the cord, it the shade is not to be wound fully up, being released when the curtain is raised the desired height so that the pawl may catch into the ratchet and retain the spring.

The above invention is extremely simple and may be applied at a tritling cost to all windows.

I do not claim simply the application of a coil spring to the shade roller for the purpose of winding up the shade, for they have been applied in various ways, but

That I do claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,

Attaching the coil spring to a swinging pendent A, and connecting the saine to the arbor B, to which the shade roller C, is attached by the pinion E, and toothed wheel F, the arbor having a ratchet D, upon it in which ratchet, a pawl H, attached to the pendent catches; the above parts being arranged substantially as shown for the purpose specified.

JAMES STEPHENS.

litnesses WM. TUsoH, J. W. Cocinas. 

